Julia Sude (left) and Laura Ludwig are into their first final together

August 23, 2014 – Laura Ludwig and Julia Sude battled back from being set point down seven times in the opening set of their Stare Jablonki Grand Slam semifinal to beat Taiana Lima and Fernanda Alves and reach the gold medal match on Saturday.

It means that after two Brazil versus Germany semifinals a Brazilian and German team will meet in the final, after Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes defeated Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler.

Ludwig and Sude won 2-0 (28-26, 21-1) after they had fought back to win the first set with their first set point. They then edged ahead in the second set to build a lead that Lima and Fernanda were unable to claw back.

Ludwig won her first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medal earlier in 2014 when she and Kira Walkenhorst won the Shanghai Grand Slam. However, Walkenhorst was subsequently ruled out for the season with a shoulder injury and so Ludwig has played with Sude since the Gstaad Grand Slam in July.

In the first semifinal Larissa and Talita didn’t hang around to reach their second gold medal match of the season.

The bronze medal match is scheduled to take place at 14.45, local time with the gold medal match to follow at 16.00.

The double-gender US$800,000 FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam runs from Tuesday August 19 until Sunday August 24 when the men’s medal matches take place. It is the 13th event and the ninth Grand Slam on the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar that features 10 Grand Slams and nine Open tournaments.

The 2014 World Tour began at the Fuzhou Open in China in April and concludes at the Durban Open in South Africa in December. Next up on the World Tour calendar is the Sao Paolo Grand Slam which runs from September 23-28.